It now forms the lifeline that runs for more than 8,000 miles, connecting rural Pakistan to the rest of the country. The road, built by both Pakistan and China in 1986, was once the passageway undertaken by trading caravans on the ancient Silk route. This harmony is more natural than man-made, except for the rumble of jeeps and buses trudging their way along the Karakoram Highway that threads the mountains. It is the sound of the Indus River gushing down at fast speeds, the roar of a distant avalanche, the athaan bouncing off mountain surfaces and the silent footsteps of the snow leopard. Here, a 45-min flight away or some 18 hours by road from administrative capital Islamabad, up in the Northern Areas, another kind of cacophony exists. Far from the busy bazaars of Rawalpindi, the grand mosques of Lahore and the hustle and bustle of southern port city Karachi which altogether, under the sweltering summer heat results in a maelstrom of life and buzz that characterize Pakistan, lies a different world.
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